Anyone else upset that the riveting Mets-Angels series is over? The Mets sure played yesterday like it was an exhibition game to the point where I feel Terry Collins pulled Jon Niese the way a hockey coach pulls his goalie to wake up his team. Granted, Niese was far from sharp yesterday as he had no feel for his curve, leaving the Angels running to the batter’s box for that first pitch fast ball, the Mets defense especially the Ginger Turner, let Niese down and the rest of the team looked sluggish. I’m sure the club will perk up when those Swingin’ Oakland A’s come to town tomorrow. Thank God the Mets miss Vida Blue and Ken Holtzman this time around.

David Wright was out early at Citi Field playing catch and taking ground balls while kneeling down. Wright should be ready by February when he reports to Cardinals spring training camp in Jupiter FL

At least there was a Wright sighting, where in the world is Ike Davis?

Went to Cyclones-Baby Highlanders game yesterday with the added attraction of Phil Hughes making a rehab start. Kevin Kernan was there too; in fact he sat a section over from me.

First impression of some of the Cyclones, I like what I saw in Daniel Muno both at bat but he made. Third baseman Richard Lucas for a guy with some heft played some nice “D” and first baseman Luke Stewart reminds me of Lucas Duda with his size, hopefully as the season goes on he’ll show some power.

Most jobs are not that much different from sports teams when it comes to problem players/workers. There are always coaches/supervisors who feel they can take someone else’s problem or malcontent and turn them into a productive member of the organization. But then there are exceptions and if this case with the Mets that exception is Oliver Perez.

It all started on July 30,2006. The Mets had just finished a sweep of the Atlanta Braves on the road to bring their record to 63-41 and a hard to believe 13 ½ game lead in the NL East. Mets management and fans had visions of the post season and of parades and tons of World Series memorabilia for us to waste our discretionary income on. Man, we Mets fans were living the high baseball life until Duaner Sanchez decided he just HAD to have some rice and beans when he hit Miami, so he hopped in a cab with some friends and a drunk driver crashed into the cab and Dirty Duaner wrecked his shoulder and the Mets season. With the trade deadline that day, Omar Minaya in a state of panic dealt of productive Xavier Nady to the Pirates for Roberto Hernandez who would fill nicely in the bullpen. In order to get Hernandez though, the Mets had to take Perez as well.

Perez had his good moments like game 4 of the 2006 NLCS and was very good in 2007 but injuries and ineffectiveness took it’s toll on Perez’ velocity on his fastball and the bad Ollie from Pittsburgh came back to haunt the Mets. The big debate after the 2008 season was should the Mets re-sign Perez or go for Derek Lowe. Another deal gone wrong.

Perez, as well as Luis Castillo, are the remains of the failure of Omar Minaya. The more Mets fans see both these players the more they are reminded of the failures of the last administration. If the Alderson regime is serious about a change in philosophy and in restoring responsibility and accountability back to the franchise, they need to give both Perez and Castillo their release. Both players are untradeable and there is no way in the world either player is making this team.

The organization is having a tough time business wise. Even without the Wilponzi scandal, the Mets would have a tough time selling tickets and finding people to believe the organization is moving forward. The Mets can come up with exotic ticket plans but the bottom line is if you want the fans believe that winning is paramount and that is not business as usual when it comes to player development and competing for jobs, send them a sign, tell Ollie and Luis to stay home and let them know check is in the mail.

It won’t be truly the year of the pitcher until a Mets pitcher throws a no-hitter. Last night was almost the night as Jon Niese, he of the defective hammy, was a 3rd inning Chris Denofia double away from Mets immortality. It’s coming I can feel it, or maybe that’s Western Omelet I had for breakfast.

I would guess that Johan Santana being 31 yrs old and coming off a couple of injuries would lose a bit off his fastball but I don’t think it’s the end of the world or the cause for him to be winless in his last in all but one of his last eight starts. Kevin Kernan was a way off base about Santana this morning, even with the great breakout season of Big Pelf, Santana is still the Ace of the Mets staff. Wake up Kevin, pitchers wins are so 1960’s.

“Having played in that market (Boston) it’s all about putting up numbers, regardless of where you are. I find it funny; you got the ‘best shape of my life’ routines. People don’t care if you come in the best shape of your life or not, just show up and produce. It’s all about production.”

“Show up and produce” simple and to the point. That should be the Mets motto for 2010.

I’m a bit cranky this morning so bare with me. Last night I had to run to my local Walgreens’s on Hylan Blvd to pick up a prescription and I got stuck on the checkout line behind Staten Island Chuck who was buying hair gel and a bottle of Brut cologne. Chuck was hoping to get a part on Jersey Shore after his cameo today at the SI Zoo (by the way Chuck didn’t see his shadow so it will be an early spring )

Then this morning, the Dunkin Donuts I stop at every morning on Chambers St has changed up the counter personnel and I’m not very happy about that. My two Hindu Princesses are no longer at this location (seems the guy who owns the Chamber St DD has a few of them around the city and has moved my two favorite ladies further uptown) and have been replaced with a couple of Latina’s with bad attitudes. My order is not complicated, XL coffee just milk, and I use a DD debit card to pay for it and NO I don’t want any fucking donuts with that!!!!!

Reading that Jose Reyes is ready for take off, takes a bit of the edge off the JJ Putz allegations of ineptness in the Mets front office from yesterday, and I was enjoying Kevin Kernan’s article until I got to this paragraph:

Mets GM Omar Minaya watched Reyes work out last week and was thrilled. Executive VP David Howard was at yesterday’s session, and after watching Reyes blaze down the exact same kind of track that is used in Olympic races, noted, “Mets fans have forgotten how good he is.”

This fucking David Howard is turning into the reincarnation of M. Donald Grant. Why is the Executive of Business Operation watching a workout of a player? Shouldn’t Omar and John Rico and Wayne Krivisy and Jerry Manuel, be the guys making the evaluation of Reyes along with Ray Ramirez and his staff? What’s next for David Howard, overseeing the chop meat at the Shake Shack? No Shyster Dave, we have not forgotten how good Reyes is. Dumb ass !

This isn’t hard. Players play. Coaches coach. Owners own. Fans bitch. VP of Business Ops handles the clubs business. What Howard should be doing is busting the balls of the guy who owns SpongeTech

So the Oakland A’s have made a competitive offer to Ben Sheets and want and answer not later than tomorrow. Okay, what is a competitive offer and how many competitors are in this race? From all the innuendo we’ve heard on Sheets, the Mets, A’s and Texas Rangers are in the loop. Rumor is Sheets’ management is looking for an $8 mil base plus incentives for this year and an option for 2011. Now as much as I would love to have Ben Sheets on the Mets, but $8mil for a pitcher who could be a either a stud or a cripple is a tough decision to make. But then again the Mets did give Alex Cora $2mil bucks to be a leader on the bench.

I can not see any way that the A’s would give Sheets $8 mil even the Rangers, as they go through a transition of ownership, would have a hard time paying that kind of coin.

If I’m the Mets I call Sheets’ agent and offer $6mil guarantee with incentives that could go to $10mil if reached (post season starts include in that) and a mutual option for 2011. Then take the other $2 mil and give that to John Smoltz.

If they can do that, not only solidifies the pitching staff but I’ll get off managements back for a while and maybe even praise them for a job well done.

So far the Mets Mini-Camp has proved that OP is great shape and that Johan Santana will again try to help Ollie as much as he can both with his pitching and with his psyche. Jon Niese took the mound for the first time since he ripped his hammy and felt pretty good. Daniel Murphy is a camp and is doing what most fans wish all the players would do, work hard and try to get better but he still catches hell. Wait until he gets traded and becomes a solid ML’er, I will be insufferable or more insufferable than I already am, if that’s possible.

Kevin Kernan seconds my position that the injury excuse from last year was a smoke screen to how badly last years team executed all facets of the game. Time for Jerry Manuel to Man Up this spring and prove that he can manage and teach and to prove that he is just not waiting to get canned so he can go back to Sacramento and collect a check sitting on his porch.

I still baffles me how the Skill Sets don’t get upset or try to change the perception of their organization after time and time again being told they run one of the worst organizations in baseball. At some point you need to show some spine and fight back. Everyone from media to fans to bloggers keep kicking the organization in the ass waiting for them to fight back. It’s at the point now where I feel like a bully for calling out the Skill Sets as often as I do, they just take all these kicks in the ass and ask for more. It’s more sad than strange. Com’on Jeffey show some fucking fight will ya!!!!!!

No blogging for the weekend as Iâ€™m off the U.S. Military Academy in West Point for a weekend camping trip with my sons Boy Scout troop. Even though the troop has a strict no electronics policy when it comes to these trips, the subversive that I am will sneak a radio in my bag to try to listen or at least get a score of this weekend Mets-Phillies series. Hopefully my tent mate wonâ€™t turn me in and have my ass hauled off to the stockade.

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Sure itâ€™s a big series but I think itâ€™s to the Mets benefit that they are playing in Philly since they are so concerned about fan reaction. Remember the words of Bobby Knight, â€œwhen you start listening to the people in the stands, you end up joining them”. It seems that itâ€™s not a lack of focus with the Mets but misplaced focus that is doing them in.

Â Â The Mets have a reputation for trying to control the news around their club. It never works and often makes things even worse in the long run. How can you expect your players to toughen up when management has an equally, if not worse, thin skin? Whatâ€™s next? Youâ€™re going to throw the fans out and play in an empty stadium so you donâ€™t hear any boos? Keep playing like this and you might not need to worry about that.

Often, it’s hard to pin down the intangibles with numbers, but not in this case. With Wednesday’s loss to the Marlins, the Mets (9-12) stumbled to 1-10 when trailing after six innings. After seven, they are 0-11.

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The newest member of the Douche Bag Hall of Fame is Philadelphia Inquirer columnist John Gonzalez. Its guys like Gonzalez that makes the demise of newspapers easier to take. If a blogger ever wrote a poorly put together piece like this Buzz Bissinger would go to his motherâ€™s basement and kick his ass. Iâ€™d call Gonzalez a rank amateur but the fact that he lives and worked in Philadelphia is punishment enough. For a fan base that for vast majority of its existence has been apathetic towards itâ€™s baseball team, they really need a good strong glass of shut the fuck up. Phillies fans are starting to make Highlander fans tolerable.

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Shrek and Johnny Bench Santos are safe for a while longer and Brian Schneider is still feeling the effects of a sore calf. Take your time Bri.

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Enjoy your weekend and while your snug in your bed think of me sleeping in the woods and donâ€™t smirk.

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